Observing Earth

British satellite operator Earth-i (Booth 1528) is expanding its role in the commercial Earth observation market. The company recently announced plans to launch and operate Europe’s first commercial satellite constellation offering both video and imagery—and what it claims is the first in the world to provide full-color video footage.

“We have chosen a specific balance of higher image quality from lower cost, taskable, long-life micro-satellites that we can deploy in sufficient numbers,” said Earth-i CEO Richard Blain.

Earth-i is highlighting its constellation at GEOINT 2017 to glean initial feedback from current and potential customers and partners. Its booth, located in the New Member Showcase section of the exhibit hall, touts Earth-i’s progress in high-resolution (better than 1 meter) data collection as well as its ability to accurately track moving objects from space.

“This forms part of our capability package along with high-frequency revisit rates that we anticipate will reach multiple revisits per day to the same point on Earth,” Blain said.

Earth-i’s next satellite prototype, which is scheduled for launch later this year, will be used to test capabilities including tasking, data downlinks, and image acquisition techniques.

According to Blain, “The launch of our own constellation will enable us to meet the rising demand for high-resolution Earth observation data to support many applications including big data analytics, pattern of life [recognition], infrastructure monitoring, and disaster relief.”